Hard Rain
Hard Rain is a campaign in Left 4 Dead 2. Hard Rain takes place after Swamp Fever and is set in the riverside town of Ducatel, Mississippi. At the start of the campaign, Virgil drops off the Survivors, with a mission to find and bring back gas for his boat. When they get off the boat and it rides away, the Survivors realize they had forgotten to bring their gun bag which contained weapons and flares to signal the boat, causing them to start the campaign with only pistols. They find a gas station, but it turns out to be empty, forcing them to walk 2 miles to the next gas station "Ducatel Diesel". To get to the gas station, they must travel through old sugar mill of the Ducatel sugar company and the company sugarcane fields. However, this is easier said than done, because Witches are naturally attracted to the smell of sugar. Once they have gasoline, it starts pouring down rain, forcing them to travel back to the dock in knee deep water while carrying the gas canisters on their backs. When they finally reach the docks to signal Virgil, they climb to the roof of a nearby Burger Tank and turn on the sign, using it as a signal. This campaign's Uncommon Common are the Worker Infected, that can take more damage and are not attracted to Pipe bombs. Below is a complete list of video walkthroughs of the 5 levels: #The Milltown #The Sugar Mill #Mill Escape #Return To Town #Town Escape Please know that the gameplay videos are on each campaign's info page not on each map page. Behind the Scenes *In early development of the campaign, the design was to have the survivors travel much further than Burger Tank, which is very close, to get weapons. It was discovered that players often faltered before retrieving weapons in time. *According to Chet Faliszek at EuroGamer expo London, early builds of the campaign had the players turn on the lights of houses and other areas on the way to the gas station so that they will be lit on the way back, but players found this to be a menial task, and so the idea was scrapped. The lights turn on automatically now. Notes * This campaign contains a new weather gameplay mechanic. Lightning flashes signal that a downpour is coming, which will summon a horde.New weather effects are added, and the chainsaw can be seen from 1:57 - 2:45. http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/left4dead2/video/6237479?hd=1 * In this campaign's poster Rochelle holds a scoped sub-machine gun, most likely a MP5 Navy. This weapon is also in most Left 4 Dead posters. * The name could be a reference to the film Hard Rain, which involved a town dealing with a flood. * This is the first campaign in which the Survivor's loss of equipment during the introduction is explained. * This is the only campaign to reuse the same levels, as they must go from the dock to the gas station, and then back to the dock. The only difference is the levels that are replayed are flooded by the rain from the first chapter, which eventually grows into a hurricane. * There is a sugar mill containing many Wandering Witches. The achievement 'Sob Story' can be earned by crossing the Sugar Mill without killing any of them. * A Burger Tank restaurant, like the one in The Sewer, is seen in Hard Rain. * The Banjo Riff heard in Hard Rain's theme is used in the Zombie Survival Guide Left 4 Dead 2 trailer. * Hard Rain's music. * When a downpour comes, your visibility is greatly reduced and it seems that, depending on your volume setting, chat with other players can get drowned out by the rain. The downpour also causes a flood, which can cover up something nasty, like a Witch. The only way to tell if the Witch is hidden is to look for the tip of her head. * On the loading screen, you can see Bill's arm from the Death Toll poster just to the left of this poster. * When lightning hits, sometimes you can hear something that sounds like Witch screaming. However it could be the wind whistling. * If looking at the maps' length, Hard Rain is the shortest campaign of Left 4 Dead 2, as it's only two levels are not very big, though their flooded versions take much more time to fight through them. * Hard Rain seems to have the fewest crescendo events in the game, having only the elevator in the Sugar Mill, and the finale. However, this is compensated for by countless storms, activating the horde (though this can be argued, as it seems more like the storm effect is just applied to the regular random hordes that every level has), as well as the huge number of Witches. * Interestingly, a horde may not come when a storm comes, but this is an extremely rare occurrence. * Hard Rain is the only campaign in either one of the two games to have altered models of the Survivors. i.e. The gas cans strapped to their backs. ** Due to the Gas cans, first aid kits are not visible on the Survivors, and guns strapped to their backs go right through the can. * Hard Rain is the only campaign where the Uncommon Common Infected spawn in every chapter. * The fact that a large portion of the campaign is set in a sugar mill may be a reference to the 1932 film 'White Zombie' which is largely regarded as the first feature length Zombie movie and features zombies (zombies based on voodoo rather than undeath or infection) being forced to work in a sugar mill. * Even though there is a hurricane at the finale, the water at the rescue point stays calm. * The poster's tagline "Come Hell and High Water" is a reference to the popular phrase "Come Hell or High Water". References Category:Left 4 Dead 2 Category:Hard Rain Category:Campaigns